Chapter 167 167

Chapter 167 167
  LIAM
  I didn’t sleep. Not a damn wink. My whole body still hummed with that wicked mix of adrenaline and satisfaction, the leftover buzz of breaking someone down inch by inch until they either talked or shattered. And she shattered beautifully. No sound, no begging, nothing but those furious eyes staring up at me like she wanted me dead. I liked that. A fighter was always more fun to ruin. Not much fun dead but beautiful, ruined
  By the time I stepped out of that shed, the sky had already started to bleach into morning gray, that color that always made me feel like the world was waking up slow and annoyed. I wiped my hands on my shirt and checked my phone. One new notification. It was just a code, no name attached. Of course.
  I slipped into the car, shut the door, and pulled out my laptop. The screen lit my face blue while the call connected, and after a few seconds a man appeared. Sharp jaw, streaks of silver at his temples, that cold, regal thing in his gaze that always made me sit just a little straighter whether I liked it or not. My Alpha.
  “Liam.” His tone was already irritated. “Why is this mission taking you so long?” I raised a brow. “And a good morning to you too.”
  His eyes narrowed. “Don’t test me kid. I gave you a simple mission to prove yourself to me and the pack. Get. The. Girl. Bring her home. And yet you’re dragging it out like you’ve forgotten who you belong to.”
  I leaned back, letting the chair groan under me. “I haven’t forgotten. I'd never.” I paused, choosing my words like they were knives. “But you forgot one little detail, when you handed me this assignment, Alpha. She has two mates. Two. And not just any random wolves. They're Silverfang’s heirs.”
  That finally made him blink. “I’m aware.”
  “Are you?” I let out a quiet laugh. “Because if I make one wrong move, one stupid mistake, they’ll rip my head off and use it as decoration outside the school gates. So if you want her alive and not dragged back as chopped meat, you’ll let me do this my way. Slow. Smart. Definitely not pressured.”
  A long silence. Then my Alpha sighed, shoulders dropping like he’d been holding them up all night. “Fine. But don’t come back empty-handed, Liam.”
  “Not even if you told me to.”
  The call cut. I snapped the laptop shut and stared at my reflection in the dark screen for a second. There was blood under my nails, a smear across my neck. I almost looked feral. Fitting.
  By the time I showered, changed, and got to Silverfang Institute, the students were already swarming like flies after sugar. It was so dangerous how these spawns of noble wolves, comfortably flaunt over the ones they think are hot. He bet he just had to send one text to lure one of them to their demise. It was too easy. I walked through the halls pretending I wasn’t dead inside from exhaustion. Then I saw her. The one girl so distinct from the rest.
  Milicent.
  She was walking like she’d been hollowed out and stitched back together badly. Her hair was messy in this pretty, tragic way, her steps slow, her eyes… goddess, those eyes didn’t look like they belonged to someone fully conscious.
  And then I noticed something. Where's her bracelet? My pulse flicked. Could there be something special about it after all? 
  I slid into step beside her, tone casual even though my brain was already sprinting. “Good morning, Beautiful.” I had decided on that nickname the moment I set my eyes on her. She's gifted. 
  She blinked like she hadn’t expected me but strangely she didn't seem like she was going to fight me like she did yesterday. “I– I wanna apologize–” 
  “I slept over everything and I realised, its unfair to you. Xander had attacked you without asking questions and when I managed to drill Fiona she... She didn't look like she hated it or was frightened by it,”
  “Because she's kinky. And stupid me wanted to fulfil her classroom fantasies before Xander walked in. It was all pre set even. Fiona has a weird mind but I got willing and she got off to Xander whooping my ass.” Milicent let out a chuckle that made my entire body freeze as blood rushed down to a bulge straining against my pants. 
  I smiled at her, soft enough to look harmless. “But... you’re missing something today.” I tapped my own wrist lightly. “Bracelet’s gone.”
  Her spine stiffened, strange. She opened her mouth, closed it, tried again. “I… yeah. I took it off.”
  The stammer. The way her throat bobbed. The pale skin, like every ounce of blood was hiding somewhere else. That's very suspicious. What is going Milicent Sawyer.
  “You look a little out of it,” I said, head tilted. “Everything okay?” She shook her head too quick. “It doesn’t matter.”
  I didn’t push, not yet. “Alright.”
  We walked for a beat, her swaying like someone who’d fought a war and barely crawled home afterward. Then I remembered something I needed to confirm, and I threw it in lightly. “I hope you and Fiona sorted things out. You know, she told you the truth.”
  Milicent let out this tired sigh that sounded like it scraped her lungs on the way out. “Yeah. We talked about everything and although she didn't feel safe enough to face the embarrassment of telling me her classroom kinks... I could tell she… she’s madly in love with you, Liam.”
  I blinked. Fiona? In love? Cute.
  Milicent continued, rubbing her forehead. “If you two want to get kinky, get kinky. But Fiona is a gift to be kept. If you play with her you’ll lose her and then you’ll regret losing someone as amazing like that.”
  Her voice hit something in me. Not guilt. Not warmth. Something else—like a reminder that this girl, this golden wolf, had no clue how the world revolved around her whether she wanted it or not.
  I let my eyes trail over her slowly, not hiding it at all. She looked fragile enough to fall apart if someone breathed too hard near her, and yet she still stood there warning me about someone else’s heart like hers wasn’t hanging on by threads.
  “Yeah,” I said quietly. “I sure as hell wouldn’t lose someone that important to me.” The words came out smooth and easy.
  And they were true, just not in the way she thought. Because Fiona wasn’t the important one. Milicent was.
  And I wasn’t planning on losing her to anyone. Not her twins, not fate, not even the moon goddess could seperate this new found obsession of mine.
  I smiled at her again like I actually cared. And she had no idea I meant every single word like a promise carved in stone.
  MILICENT
  Last Night.
  I didn’t remember falling asleep. One second I was breathing through the strange stillness spreading through my bones after I yanked the bracelet off, bracing for the agony I felt before putting it on, waiting for my wolf to claw her way through my skull and tear me open from the inside. Except nothing happened. 
  No explosion, no screaming in my head, no fire storming down my spine. Not even a broken bone. Just… silence. A scary kind of peace that didn’t feel like it belonged to me.
  I sat there in the passenger seat of Zayne’s car thinking maybe the witch Zayne had spoken to had lied, maybe the bracelet was only needed temporarily and wasn’t even doing anything at all, maybe I was just overthinking everything like I always do. 
  But halfway down the road, when the dark trees began to blurry up, the stillness wrapped around my lungs so tight I couldn’t breathe right. My arms felt heavy first, then my legs, then my whole body like someone had poured cold sand into my veins.
  “Zayne,” I tried to say, but it came out like a whisper dragged across gravel.
  He leaned toward me instantly, but everything was tilting and fading and slipping away like the world had been dunked underwater.
  I remember his voice trying to call me. I could tell he was panicking and I could tell he was trying to hide it—then I remember nothing. Just darkness swallowing me.
  When I woke again, I felt heat behind me. A chest pressed against my spine. An arm slung around my waist like he’d been guarding me all night. Zayne’s scent hit me first, that clean, warm thing he always carried, like pine and storm clouds. His breath brushed the back of my neck, and for a moment I melted into him on instinct.
  Then I blinked properly and realized I was in his bed. In his shirt. And he was spooning me in the most protective way ever. The thought made butterflies appear at the pit of my stomach. 
  Before I could even process that, someone groaned from the doorway.
  “Are you done hogging her?” Xander’s voice carried that cocky annoyance he didn’t even try to hide. “Move over. Some of us also want access to our mate.”
  I turned my head just enough to see him leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed, hair a mess like he’d been running his hands through it in his sleep, all night. His eyes scanned me, checking for injury, then glared at Zayne like Zayne stole his lunch.
  Zayne didn’t even open his eyes. “Shut up.”
  “Get your arm off her.”
  “No.”
  “Zayne.”
  “Xander,” Zayne muttered back with the exact same tone.
  I swear if I wasn’t exhausted I would’ve laughed. They sounded like toddlers fighting over the last sweet. And I'm their favourite candy.
  “Bro, you always do this,” Xander kept going, getting closer now, pointing accusingly at Zayne’s arm locked around my waist. “Every single time you get the chance, you glue yourself to her. She's not a teddy bear.”
  Zayne cracked one eye open, looked straight at him, and said, “Then stop leaving me alone with her if you don’t want this to happen.”
  I bit back a laugh and failed. “You two are unbelievable.” Xander’s expression softened for a second when he heard my voice. “You okay Kitten?”
  I nodded even though I didn’t fully feel okay. “Mostly.”
  Zayne lifted himself up behind me, his palm sliding from my waist but not fully letting go, like he needed that last bit of contact to ground himself. “You scared the hell out of me,” he said under his breath.
  Before I could reply, his phone buzzed. He grabbed it lazily, still sitting half behind me, and the moment he opened the message, his whole body went rigid.
  Xander frowned. “What now?” Zayne didn’t answer immediately. He just turned the phone around so we could read it too.
  It was a text from Milo.
  Milo: Bro. You won't believe what I dug up on your boy Liam.
  Another message came in right under it.
  Milo: He’s from Dranox pack.
  Zayne cursed. Xander’s whole mood turned cold. I blinked at the name, my heart tripping over itself..
  “Dranox…” I murmured. “That sounds familiar but I don't remember it being under the superior Alpha's terrain”
  Xander shot me a look, gentle but firm. “You’ve probably just heard us talk about them around school. Dranox isn't even supposed to be a pack. They're just... wolves who were casted out from their packs and didn't want to lead a rogue life. They chose to create Dranox and appoint an alpha because they still believed in hierarchy.” Xander explained. 
  “That doesn't seem so bad.” I remarked. 
  “It is,”